SB'13 Program Overview

SB'13 Program Highlights At-A-Glance

Sustainable Brands '13 promises to be more powerful and engaging than ever before as we explore the 21st century renaissance that is being created by brands big and small who are finding new ways to deliver value to society. Be inspired, engaged and equipped as you join in conversation with over 2,000 innovators from around the world, along with 150 speakers, and 100 solutions providers in pre-conference workshops, inspiring plenary sessions, group discussions, an expanded expo, and signature evening events.

Plenary sessions feature many leading thinkers and practitioners of environmental and social innovation in the world today. Each day brings new conversation about the Trends and Drivers that are enabling the sustainable brands Renaissance, the types of product, service and business model Innovation we'll see going forward, and the Communications that are captivating our lives in the process.

Plenaries

These speakers, plus many more, will help us build shared vision and alignment around the issues and opportunities relevant to our community's mission.

John Havens, Founder of The H(app)athon Project and Contributing Writer at Mashable, will shed light on an unfolding cultural paradigm shift at the intersection of re-evaluated personal happiness, the Quantified Self movement and Big Data, spelling out a societal transition from passive consumers of stuff to active creators of data re-shaping relationships and business values across many industries.

Bea Perez, Chief Sustainability Officer at The Coca-Cola Company will share how the company is working to put sustainability into the heart of the brand. Building shared value can be a challenge, but Coke is certainly up for it!

Natasha Davidson, Area Marketing Manager at Philips Lighting Africa, will reveal an exciting new concept for a collaboration experiment enabling leading brands to embrace decentralized infrastructure and product-to-service conversion for win-win sustainable innovation in emerging markets.

Tensie Whelan, President of the Rainforest Alliance, will tell the story of a video campaign that has received over 1 million views and over 20 million tweets, capturing the attention of more than just the conscious consumer. Tensie will share what companies can learn from the Alliance's experience about how to engage the mainstream in sustainability issues in fresh and engaging ways.

Jonathan Wolfson, CEO of Solazyme, will reveal how and why algae and other bio-inspired solutions are relevant at scale not just in energy or transportation, but across a number of other sectors, too. Prepare to be inspired by the power and versatility of algae!

Molly Morse, CEO of Mango Materials, will talk about the breakthrough potential that her exciting start-up has found in turning methane into biodegradable plastics that are economically competitive with conventional oil-based plastics. Molly's first-class team of engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators recently won the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge Business Plan Competition and received the respective grand prize at a dinner hosted by The Clinton Global Initiative.

Bryan Welch brings a much-needed, fresh perspective on current mainstream gaps in envisioning a flourishing future, and offers disarmingly powerful advice that penetrates both ends of the political spectrum and everyone in between. Bryan is Publisher and Editorial Director of Ogden Publications, responsible for Mother Earth News, Utne Reader, and Grit, among others, and the author of Beautiful and Abundant.

Bob Willard is a leading international sustainability thought leader and author of The New Sustainability Advantage. He applies business and leadership development experience from his 34-year career at IBM to show how sustainability strategies can result in an ROI of 51% to 81% within three to five years. In addition, Bob will provide an integrated view of the 'perfect storm' of activity in the world of sustainability metrics and what it means for the coming sustainable brand renaissance through the potential convergence of respected leading standards.

Jonah Sachs is Co-Founder and CEO of Free Range Studios. A hands down favorite at SB'12, and back by popular demand, Jonah rejoins us with fresh observations and tangible instruction in the art of masterful storytelling, a skill that is quickly becoming critical for those trying to engage and communicate better with stakeholders in all parts of the corporate sustainability and brand journey.

Facilitated breakout sessions are designed to equip sustainability, brand, design, human resources and finance professionals with the tools needed to build new business and brand value today, and lasting value for both business and other stakeholders tomorrow. You'll find skills training sessions, best-practice case studies and active discussion groups, all delivering top-class actionable insight.

Ronald Voglewede is the North American Sustainability Lead at Whirlpool. He will share a rather unique view on a 'quiet quest' approach to equipping consumers with high-performance sustainable products. Find out how clarity and certainty of sustainability considerations in the core of your design process can result in highly impressive results even without the proverbial 'green halo' attached to them.

Kim Lopdrup, former President of Red Lobster, is now a Senior Vice President of Business Development at Darden Restaurants, the world's largest full-service restaurant company operating popular brands such as Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Bahama Breeze, among others. Kim will talk to us about leveraging investment in natural capital to strengthen key ecosystems and add brand value at the same time.

Ephi Banaynal dela Cruz is Director, Social and Environmental Accountability & Audit at Microsoft. She will join a discussion tackling transparency and effective utilization of data collected through supply chain scorecard programs, particularly with the goal of establishing incentives for suppliers to innovate for sustainability.

Wood Turner, Vice President of Sustainability Innovation at the iconic Stonyfield Farm, will be part of a panel tackling the tough chicken-or-egg problem faced by many industries, using the food, beverage, restaurant and entertainment industries as an example: Should brands lead the transition to a more sustainable global food system—even if market demand lags behind; or should business meet consumers where they are, with changes that may be more incremental but also more palatable?

Jeff Rosenblum is a Co-Founder and Documentary Filmmaker at Questus, and also the creator of The Naked Brand, a film about ways in which corporate communications are being transformed through technological advances making brands transparent and accountable not just to shareholders, but to everyone. Advertising as we know it is dead; join Jeff and brand leaders featured in his film to learn what comes next.

Annie Longsworth, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S North America, will explore gender in corporate sustainability – the good, the bad, and just a little bit of the ugly. Women are entering the field at record rates, yet are not reaching the highest ranks at the same rates (yet). Annie's panel, featuring Kellie McElhaney of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Jen Boynton of TriplePundit and Aman Singh of CSRWire, will tackle this issue from a pro-sustainable business perspective.

Darren Beck is Director of Environmental Initiatives at Sprint and has played an instrumental role in ensuring the success of Sprint Buyback - a highly profitable take-back program that gives customers credit for trade-in of old phones, while helping close the loop on some valuable materials. Darren will share insights into the strategy and ecosystem of partners Sprint has utilized to collect 4 phones for every 10 phones it sells.

Michael Murray is the CEO at Lucid Design Group. Michael will address the potential for the Internet of Things to enable impressive behavior change through radical transparency and liberation of energy and water use data. Come have a look at the latest data from Lucid's one-of-a-kind Campus Conservation Nationals competition!

Take a deeper dive into half- or full-day interactive sessions on Monday during pre-conference workshops. These comprehensive sessions are a great way to elevate your knowledge in certain subject areas fundamental to advancing fast in your sustainability journey. Remember to purchase an ALL EVENT pass in order to participate in these productive work sessions.

Workshops

These are some of the half or full day pre-conference workshops. Remember to purchase an ALL EVENT pass in order to participate in these productive work sessions.

Mike Wallace, Director, Focal Point USA at the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and his team will teach two GRI Master Classes unveiling G4, the next generation of GRI reporting guidelines which will be launched in Amsterdam in late May 2013. Mike and his team will join us almost immediately after the G4 launch in Europe, so this will be the first GRI G4 event in the United States – a convenient way to be among the earliest G4-trained professionals in North America!

Model, activist and humanitarian Kate Dillon Levin, Corporate Partnerships at CodeREDD, will be joined by a wide panel of experts – representing the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and NativeEnergy, among others – to provide attendees with a holistic understanding of the latest trends around carbon offsets, emerging greenhouse gas regulations (including California's AB32), and smart ways to successfully and responsibly integrate carbon offsets into corporate sustainability strategy and practice.

Kevin Owens, Director of Global Sustainability Systems at Steelcase, will join counterparts from other brands such as Nestlé Purina and Sprint in a workshop summarizing the current state of applied life cycle assessment (LCA) projects, including scope, cost, 'typical' project time, as well as the availability and precision of relevant data across carbon, water and other types of impacts.

Fiona Bennie, Head of Sustainability at Dragon Rouge, is sure to both engage and inspire you in her session on business model innovation. Based on Dragon Rouge's Brand Futures work, Fiona will lead participants to unlocking their brand's potential by completely rethinking the ways in which it might structure and deliver on its value proposition.

Raphael Bemporad, Founding Partner & Chief Strategy Officer at BBMG, will reveal a new level of detail and ethnography video material to follow up on one of the hottest stories across the landscape of consumer insights – namely, the story of the Aspirationals arising from the Regeneration Consumer Study conducted jointly with partners GlobeScan and SustainAbility. And that is just one of the several fascinating studies this consumer research roundtable will present.

Sally Uren, Deputy Chief Executive at Forum for the Future, will lead a workshop on applied systems thinking, showing us how to unlock untapped value by taking a whole systems approach to strategy. Drawing on practical applications and her vast leadership experience at Forum for the Future, she is a seasoned expert in bringing systems innovation to life.

Back by popular demand, John Marshall Roberts, Founder of Worldview Thinking, will be on site with an updated and perfected version of his workshop on understanding and utilizing the power of different worldviews. Enjoy his dynamic, energizing presence and fine-tune your communications strategies for business and social change!

This year's Sustainable Solutions Expo will feature new tools and partners to help you build a successful and sustainable business and brand. Don't miss finding out about the new packaging solutions, data management tools, engagement technologies, and more to help you achieve your sustainability goals.

Expo

Find a sustainable solution to help meet your business needs. Meet representatives from these and many more companies as you learn about new tools and technologies. Now open to the local business community on Monday afternoon.

The SB Innovation Open was created 5 years ago to catalyze the progress and impact of the next generation of sustainable brands. These are the startups who, given the right support and exposure, can contribute to a flourishing future economically, socially and environmentally. If you think your company could benefit from a week of introductions to influential brands, minds, experts and designers we encourage you to apply.

Startup Competition (SBIO)

This year's expert judging panel will narrow the field to our top 10 semi-finalists. Meet some of this year's influential industry leaders who will help take these entrepreneurial ideas to the next level.

Our entry form asks applicants to submit an overview of their business plan outlining the social/environmental impacts, economic viability, success measurement and scalability. Our expert judging panel will narrow the field to our top ten semi-finalists who will present their ideas at the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego, California this June!

This is where the networking really happens. Relax and enjoy a fireside chat as you catch up with old friends and acquaintances or connect with peers around a topic of shared interest when you sit down for an engaging conversation at one of many Birds of a Feather dinners. But this is just the beginning. The non-stop line up of opportunities to connect run from the minute you arrive on the island, to the minute you leave. Come rested and ready to connect!

Special Events

Monday night kicks off with inspiration on Opening Night. A Welcome Reception follows where you can continue the conversation from opening plenaries, meet new peers, and renew old friendships.

Tuesday night, join fire-pit discussions along the island, participate in the Sustainable Solutions Booth Crawl, or grab a spot at one of several Birds of a Feather dinners. Opportunity for co-creation and collaboration follows, or enjoy movie screenings of inspiring and important films. Make sure to stop by the various parties hosted by our Connect sponsors in their hospitality suites later in the evening.

Wednesday night, put on your dancing shoes and gather by the bay for the annual SB live concert. Celebrate the evening with friends as 1% for the Planet's music artist takes the stage under the stars.